Monday, January 30, 2017

Cash sweetener for handover of schools

Education Minister Richard Bruton is offering a cash sweetener for the
Church in a new push for the handover of Catholic schools to other
patron bodies.

He plans to lease school properties from local bishops, rather than
going through the legally complicated and time-consuming process of
property transfers from Church ownership.

Where a handover is agreed, it is expected that, in most cases, the
new patron will pay the church an annual rent of around €10,000-€20,000 a
year.

Mr Bruton is seeking to breathe life into the stagnant
divestment process that has seen only 10 schools switch from being under
religious control since that initiative was launched in 2012.

The Government is committed to having a total of 400 primary and
post-primary schools under multi-denominational or non-denominational
patronage by 2030.

The new approach, being announced today, will
involve knocking heads together in areas where there is a demand for at
least one different type of school, multi- or non-denominational, with a
view to working out a local agreement.

Mr Bruton is hoping for "live transfers" of existing schools, with
the blessing of the local bishop and parents, and with staff and the
majority of board of management members remaining in place.

Mr
Bruton's attempt to break the divestment logjam will involve a two-stage
process - an identification phase and an implementation phase.

The identification phase will be managed by local education and
training boards (ETBs), which will identify towns or areas were there is
likely to be demand for greater diversity.

This will be done
through a survey of parents of pre-school children, asking whether they
want the choice of a multi- or non-denominational school.

The ETB will write a report on the outcome, which will be published
on the Department of Education website. Where demand for the transfer of
at least one Church-run school is identified, bishops will be expected
to consult with parents and the school about the options offered by
other patrons.

Apart
from managing the initial stage in the process, ETBs have a direct
interest, in that they are patrons of 11 Community National Schools and
have ambitions to grow that number.

Community National Schools are a hybrid between the traditional
religious-run schools, which focus on teaching one religion, and the
Educate Together model that provides for no religious teaching inside
the school day.

Mr Bruton and his officials consulted with the
bishops, different patron groups as well as other education stakeholders
before developing the plans being announced today.

Mr Bruton has now written to the Catholic bishops outlining his
proposals and seeking their nominations to working groups to develop
detailed protocols for the process.

Even with a positive response from the various stakeholders, any progress is expected to be slow.

Mr Bruton has endorsed Community National Schools, but he said:
"There was no one model that will provide the answer to this complex
issue.

"There is room for a number of different providers to
respond to different parental wishes, in the context of an expanding
population and increasing demand for multi-denominational education."

Demand
for change was previously identified in 28 areas, and the initial focus
of the new initiative is likely to be on the 18 areas in which there
has been no progress.

Of the 400-school target in the Programme for Government, 130 are
already in existence, while more than 100 brand new schools will be
multi- or non-denominational, which leaves up to 170 to be created
through this process.